I worry because I cannot write exact feelings I had throughout the read. And even worry much that it took me a wait of few days to write about this and now I cannot recall the thoughts I had just after finishing it. And that reminds me that I was amazed by how good Mr. Abeysekara remembers his childhood so in a way I almost went to a conclusion about writing. 'To be a good writer, you must have a good detailed memory. Otherwise, what you write will be like a flat desert.'
If you are a dog lover and have a passion for history and have memories around Pannipitiya and Highlevel road, I guess you will enjoy reading this. Though I cannot guarantee you'll enjoy it as I did, I like to kindly remind you that we don't have many reading material about experiences with pets in Sri Lanka for adults.
I recall what I felt was something like sorrow. Not exactly that but something close. With Mr. Abeysekara's narration, I felt something nostalgic. I remembered all the dog friends I had since childhood. So I let the train of thoughts to cross here.
Starting from MENIKE, a small dog owned by Samadara nenda (my aunt) who was living with us. I remember MENIKE had a bad front leg and and she walked like jumping. She was light brown and small. She had fur in her ear tips. I think I was like 3-4 years old. Maybe it's a long lost jumbled memory. Then there was LAIKA named after the famous Russian astronaut Laika. She was a year older than me and lived with us for 17 years. Later after MENIKE, nenda also adopted a fluffy puppy named JAMBO. Don't remember whether he was a child of Laika but most of the ones we had were Laika's children. JAMBO was a chubby one. He fell down from the front wall and injured his front leg. Then the leg was shivering time to time and never recovered. Maybe it's a nerve damage. He just lived for a year or so. There was an old Black and cream color coated male dog named COLONEL. He lived at MENIKE's time. The oldest dog I have in memory. I remember he having a badly opened wound in his testicles and we took him to the vet in a kichi kichi Delika van. This happened about 35 years ago and the only vet we had is the government one. It was nearly impossible to take a time from him back then.
I remember my bappa doing GODA WEDAKAM for all the dogs we had. Bappa once took home a survivor from the road and named him CARLO because his snout was black and coat as ash/ brown. He was in a really bad situation with lots of ticks, fleas and badly exposed skin with wounds. Bappa carefully treated him and he become the most beautiful one in the area. After a year or two while he was unleashed, he went missing. Bappa was furious and looked everywhere but couldn't find a clue. Later we received news that someone who came from a van took him away. A person from the village has seen the dog inside the van.
Among many kids LAIKA had, BROWN was lucky to stay with us. He was big and completely brown. He was loved mostly by my Amma. He lived about 6-7 years or so and the whole neighborhood was feared of him. One day when we returned from home, Amma was crying and said someone has poisoned BROWN. Later that evening, BROWN died while Amma looking at him. I still remember seeing Ammas face from the window of my room. Her eyes getting wet while watching her favorite pet having a painful death. She was never interested in adopting a dog for a long time afterwards.
In late 90s, Taththa's friend Jayasinghe uncle brought home a puppy. DINGO! A son from his own pet girl at his home Ragama. It was a cream colored Terrier and was the first non local breed we had. He also had this record book with his family history and all and it was quite an experience for us. Being a terrier, he was quite an active one and a disaster. He live with us for years and then Taththa gave him to my uncle Manoj. He lived with them for years and one day got hit by a lorry while he was playing on the road. What I now remember is DINGO never went old. He was maybe 10 years when he died but all the time he was fluffy, woolly and full of life. And as I remember, he's the first dog that we have pictures. After 2000, I came to Colombo and lost track of the dogs at home. I remember a Rottweiler like dog named BRUNO living at home for some time. He was not a Rottweiler but he must have had an ancestor.
Now as an adult, I have lived with 5 Black German Shepherds once at my current home. My wife had a lady named PATTIE. She was very old when I met her. After she left, MICKEY came as a puppy in 2010, she had 7 babies in 2012 and 3 of them stayed with us. They were COLIN, ROSY and PODDY. They all had different characters and I do not want to write extensively on them because it'll be a really long essay. While the 4 of them staying, PODDY had a baby with COLIN and he was BRUNO. He was not a healthy one from the beginning. PODDI left us in 2017 after trying really hard breaking us all badly. Her son left us later the same year with a kidney failure after a huge struggle. ROSY left us in 2020 giving us the same pain.
MICKY mom and her son COLIN still living with us and they are our world if I say it in a single word. COLIN has a weired attachment to me and sometimes it's a pain in the ass :-D and I say MALA WAATHAYAK to him.
Apart from these, I have countless dog friends in the road, at the temple, at the shops in the village and at my office premises. With a wife who has a craziness for dogs, we make dog friends everywhere we go.
I can say I know dogs. I feel them. They feel me. I know and may have felt the exact feeling little Tissa had. I may have done the same if I was him. Maybe I'd me more skeptic and plan the whole adventure more carefully. Maybe the story I write will be a totally different one.
